When we first arrived here we were able to work along slide of a Youth with a Mission, YWAM, team. They were from the school of evangelism, so to put it simply, they were in Phitsanulok to evangelize to the people. A great way to go into the nations and spread the gospel. One way that they would evangelize is that they would go to a park, preform a skit, explain the skit, and then give an opportunity for the people to sit with them, ask questions about the skit and what they just heard. On days that we didn’t work together, they would come back and share amazing stories such as how four people got saved that day. WHAT! AMAZING! I want to be apart of change in someones life. So I was determined to share the gospel with someone this month.
One day while we were hanging out with the break dancers I got an opportunity to talk to a young girl named Jom-Jam. We started talking and I saw that she had an interesting necklace on. I asked her about it and she said that it was an amulet from a witch doctor. Our translator suggested that we go to the side to talk about it. Apparently when she was young, a demon possessed her body and her family took her to a witch doctor. The which doctor cast it out and gave her the amulet to protect her from ever having that happen again. That was a huge door for me to talk to her about the love of Jesus and a different kind of protection. So I did. I started to share about the gospel and she was surprisingly interested. I then asked her if she wanted this different kind of protection. One that didn’t need an amulet, but simply the name of Jesus. To my delight, she said, “yes”! I was thrilled! So I told her about prayer and how to talk to her new Father. We talk and I was blessed to lead her through the prayer. I was so happy and excited to help lead this girl to the Lord!
A few days later we came back to the break dancers and Jom-Jam was there. Our translator got to talk with her and I realized that she was wearing her amulet again. Later that night I found out that she had talked to her parents and they had convinced her that she was Buddhist and not Christian. She needed the amulet to keep her safe. My heart broke.
But I thought… If she… what?
I was confused and didn’t understand. Then I remembered something someone once told me. A person needs to hear the gospel, on average, seven times before they accept it into their hearts. I may not always be seven, but I could be one, six, three, or a five. I’m still a number in their life. I believe that I was one or two in Jom-Jam’s life. I believe that the Lord is not done with her life, I was still blessed to be apart of her getting closer to the Lord. I’m not happy about what happened, but all I can do is pray for her and trust the the Lord loves her more than I do and will keep pursuing her like he does me.
There are different ways to preach the gospel. Not everyone will accept the Lord by seeing a skit. Some will, others won’t. By investing time into the b-boys we were able to share what we believe with them. They were able to see how we live our lives and the joy we have serving the Lord. Through that, two of the boys, Heart and Most, decided that they wanted to accept the Lord into their hearts! I may not have personally spoken to those boys about the Lord, but they knew my beliefs and our teams lives were an example to them. Our team was a six or seven for those boys… and how awesome it is to be apart of the Lord and the work He is doing in Northern Thailand.
